A growing number of Michigan parents are opting not to give their children vaccinations against potentially deadly diseases. / Detroit Free Press file photo

Despite the well-documented benefits of vaccines — and the equally well-documented lack of risk — a growing number of Michigan parents are opting out of inoculations. The Free Press wrote in an editorial how that puts everyone’s children at risk. Readers sent in letters to the editor and took to the comment section of Freep.com to weigh in:

I co-facilitate a support group for survivors of polio. I invite anyone who would like to attend our meeting to talk with, and witness, people who were perfectly normal before being hit with the polio virus. They have lived with severe disability or deformity all their lives, and have suffered serious consequences.

Most of them are now suffering from what is known as Post-Polio Syndrome, and usually it leaves people just as debilitated as when they suffered the initial viral attack — sometimes even more severely disabled.

The tri-county area — Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties — was hard-hit during the epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s. Don’t gamble on your child’s future. Get them vaccinated!

Bonnie E. Levitan

Grosse Pointe

I come from the generation in which we were scared to death of getting polio. When they came out with the polio vaccine, we lined up to get our sugar cube. Even the children knew how lucky they were to get this. What has happened? We make our kids wear helmets when they ride their bikes, sit in car seats and wear seat belts, make them wear life jackets near water, and yet somehow think it is OK to skip inoculating them against diseases that could kill them. There is nothing more precious than our children and grandchildren; why would we gamble with their lives?

Patricia A. Schenk

Warren

There should be exemptions only when the child has a health condition that precludes receiving the vaccine. Any other refusal is child abuse, to both the child not receiving the vaccine and any other children that child will encounter. There is no logical argument for not receiving mandatory vaccines. Period.

Greg Donahoe

via Freep.com

Whatever happened to “keep your laws off my body?”

Matthew Hambleton

via Freep.com

Yes, it is a civic duty, unless there are clear medical reasons. If religious restrictions keep you away, attend a church-affiliated or other private school that does not require it. People are allowed to completely abuse the religious exemption.

Tija Spitsberg

via Freep.com

You can’t force parents to vaccinate their children. They need to do a better job of educating parents about the benefits of vaccination.